Year: 2018

Kings are better at accomplishing justice (I didn’t say “social justice“).

Modern democratic courts are, of course, totally unjust. In America, for instance, the conviction rate is the same as the FISA court spying approval: 99%…

Why are kings any better? Because it is in their self-interest to preserve law and order. Instead of reading Hans Hoppe, read Mishlei 16:10 – 15:

קסם על שפתי מלך במשפט לא ימעל פיו.פלס ומאזני משפט לידוד מעשהו כל אבני כיס. תועבת מלכים עשות רשע כי בצדקה יכון כסא. רצון מלכים שפתי צדק ודבר ישרים יאהב. חמת מלך מלאכי מות ואיש חכם יכפרנה. באור פני מלך חיים ורצונו כעב מלקוש.

It’s not that the king is doing this Lishmah, rather כי בצדקה יכון כסא. Besides, they often became kings because of a prior reputation for being an effective judge (as seen from the Parsha directly preceding Parshas Melech, and historically too, in Sefer Shoftim). And they now have real power, unlike when they were just an arbitrator, tempered by the fact they take a percentage of the gross national prosperity, and regimes require the consent of the governed, especially personal regimes.

Rabbenu Yonah Mishlei 15:10:

קסם על שפתי מלך במשפט לא ימעל פיו, כאילו קסם על שפתי מלך להכיר את בעלי הדין אי זה יטעון אמת ואי זה יטעון שקר. “במשפט לא ימעל פיו”, שלא יחתוך דין מרומה, כי פעמים שאין לתובעים עדים, והשופטים פוטרין את הנתבע לשקר. אך המלך החפץ לשפוט צדק אין דרכו להכשל בזאת, כי מאימתו יירא הנתבע שלא יטעון שקר לפניו, ואם שקר יטעון יבקש הדבר וימצא, כי אוהבי המלך רבים, וכענין שנאמר “גם במדעך מלך אל תקלל ובעל כנפים יגיד דבר” (קהלת י, כ) וכאשר אמר אחימעץ ליואב “או עשיתי בנפשי שקר וכל דבר לא יכחד מן המלך” (ש”ב יח, יג), ואם עד אלה לא יצאה הצדק לאור השי”ת אשר המליך את המלך נותן לו בלבבו להכיר את טענות הרמאי, גם יכשילהו עליו לשונו ויבחן.

Mishlei 6:30 – 35:

לא יבוזו לגנב כי יגנוב למלא נפשו כי ירעב. ונמצא ישלם שבעתים את כל הון ביתו יתן. נאף אשה חסר לב משחית נפשו הוא יעשנה. נגע וקלון ימצא וחרפתו לא תמחה. כי קנאה חמת גבר ולא יחמול ביום נקם. לא ישא פני כל כפר ולא יאבה כי תרבה שחד.

They will not despise a thief if he steals to sate his appetite, for he is hungry. And if he is found, he will pay sevenfold; he must give all he owns. One who commits adultery with a woman is devoid of sense; one who would destroy his soul-he will do it. He will find wounds and disgrace, and his reproach shall not be erased for jealousy shall arouse the husband’s wrath, and he will not have pity on the day of vengeance. He will not have regard for any ransom, neither will he consent though you give him many bribes.

In other words, even though thieving to eat is understandable, so the shame is less, the punishment is still severe. But the punishment for adultery is far worse, and the shame ineradicable. (At least that’s how it used to be.)

This Parsha serves also as a parable for Bein Adam Lamakom; it is one thing to be a thief, another entirely to be a traitor.

Not to exclude seemingly settled adults, but at the very least lost teenagers should avoid heresy. If they have a good secular psychologist, he should be telling them the same. If you aren’t מן היישוב, aren’t careful about other people’s property, are single (or worse, have a קדשה), wake at noon, and use drugs with or without a prescription, maybe you should reserve judgment on the secrets of the universe. Keep a notebook, so you don’t forget your insights, and leave it at that.

If you can’t keep Torah and Mitzvos at the moment to some degree, you can take comfort in the fact that many people have gone through such an “Onness” stage. Those who heal such youth focus on turning them, firstly, into human beings (including via Torah study, see Emuna Ubitachon Chazon Ish 4:12), and rightly so. (For an alternative approach, see this.)

This isn’t merely about which sins are worse, but a form of “אל תרשע הרבה”.

We just wrote:

Rabbi Yoel Teitelbaum is known to have said visiting Kivrei Tzaddikim is only for people on a high level(…), in “Al Hage’ulah” p. 166 (#108). Only those who can “connect” with the deceased should go… It’s like outspoken atheists who deliberately try to remove all living hope, especially from the terminally ill, the depressed, and the downtrodden, and replace it with “courage” these people simply cannot find within themselves.

In response, one of our wonderful readers sent us screenshots of the Arizal who apparently says the same thing (I’m telling you, I knew I should have mentioned it!):

It’s an explicit Arizal, so why am I blaming the Satmar Rebbe?!

But, no.

First of all, the Arizal, as usual, is referring to people on a high spiritual level who don’t wish to lose their “aura”. Rabbi Steinman, for example, was very careful about not entering cemeteries, or at least not the Dalet Amos, even for his wife, if I remember correctly, and there are others who did\do the same. This doesn’t apply to everyone, though, as the Satmar Rebbe was doing.

Besides, one can also pray from afar. Rabbi Chaim Kanievsky shlita once said, if one can see the Kever from a distance, one has all the benefits of praying at the Kever, but without the Tum’ah.

Anyone can quote the Arizal as though it is meant for everyone (my apologies to our Arizal guy!), but it isn’t right. Imagine someone going to his sole Torah lesson of the day, after finishing work at the factory: An evening Tanach Shiur, the only one לבו חפץ. Would you tell them the relevant Arizal and have them learn nothing?!